2002-03-24 04:00:00 PDT Johannesburg -- In a morbid twist on South Africa's debate over the AIDS crisis, a controversial Bay Area academic and a South African computer scientist have challenged each other to a duel to the death -- using chemicals and the deadly AIDS virus as the choice of weapons.

AIDS "dissident" David Rasnick of the University of California at Berkeley has agreed to inject himself with HIV if South African Professor Philip Machanick takes a three-drug cocktail of anti-HIV medicine for the rest of his life.

Dismissed by many as a stunt that will never take place, the duel nevertheless highlights the disruptive nature of the conflict between mainstream AIDS science and the influential dissident view in South Africa, a country that faces an AIDS-related health catastrophe.

"The experiment is simple," Rasnick says. "We will see who comes down with AIDS-defining and other diseases and who lives longer. In other words, which is more harmful: HIV or the anti-HIV drugs?"

Rasnick, a visiting scientist in UC Berkeley's molecular and cell biology department, and others dispute the accepted belief that AIDS is contagious, sexually transmitted and caused by HIV. They say the high mortality rate ascribed to HIV is the result of lifestyle factors in the West such as drug abuse and, in Africa, because of poor nutrition and disease caused by poverty.

The dissidents also blame anti-retroviral drugs -- which they say are highly toxic -- for many of the opportunistic ailments that afflict AIDS sufferers.

Machanick, a professor of computer science at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, issued the bizarre challenge because of the high-profile position that Rasnick and other dissidents enjoy in government circles in South Africa, a country where one in 10 people is infected with the virus.

So far, South African President Thabo Mbeki has sympathized with the dissidents' views -- to the outrage of the South African medical community, AIDS activists and people like Machanick. Mbeki has also balked at issuing anti-retroviral drugs in state hospitals, even though drug companies have offered these products at cost or even for free. Last week, the ruling African National Congress even issued a document to its members that questions the existence of AIDS.

"I e-mailed (Rasnick) last year suggesting that if he was so sure about his views, he should take the virus," said Machanick. "We corresponded for a while and both decided the other was not a complete flake. He said he would inject himself with the virus if I would take anti-retrovirals."

Dr. Costa Gazi, the health spokesman for the Pan Africanist Congress party, which has criticized the Mbeki government's stand on AIDS, was dismissive of the dissidents -- and the duel.

"This is a small coterie of people on the fringes of world science," Gazi said. "The rest of the scientific community has already reviewed the facts and does not need to prove its case over again, especially while people are dying in large numbers."

But while many have scoffed at the two duelists -- saying they can afford a display of bravado knowing they will never have to actually carry it out -- Rasnick insists the challenge is real.

TELEVISION EVENT

He wants the duel to take place live on television and is trying to raise funds to pay for the drugs and the cost of monitoring the event.

"There are no ethical questions about doing this, since both Machanick and I have agreed to participate in this experiment, just as thousands of other people continue to voluntarily participate in experiments around the world," Rasnick said. "To the best of my knowledge, there is no law against becoming HIV-positive."

At one point, Rasnick challenged Gazi to a similar duel. But Gazi, who was imprisoned and forced into exile by the former white-controlled apartheid government, declined.

"When Rasnick made the challenge, I said, 'What a load of crap.' It won't prove anything," said Gazi.

In a less dramatic echo of the Rasnick-Machanick duel, Mbeki has set up an advisory panel charged with establishing the causes of the disease. The panel pits dissidents like Rasnick against medical experts who hold the conventional view that HIV causes AIDS.

While Mbeki has in effect given dissidents like Rasnick encouragement, it is unclear how seriously Mbeki takes their views or whether, as some critics claim, he is exploiting them in order to save the country from a huge bill in treating his country's AIDS epidemic.

But with Mbeki facing challenges from within his party on the issue and growing criticism from abroad, pressure is mounting for him to publicly end the AIDS controversy, even if he privately hangs on to his unorthodox views.

DISSIDENTS DEFIANT

As the debate rages in South Africa, the mood among the AIDS dissidents is upbeat and defiant.

"South Africans have learned from the catastrophe of apartheid -- and colonialism in general -- that they cannot blindly accept the white man's word on anything. They have learned they must find things out for themselves and come up with their own solutions," Rasnick said.

"It is ironic, really," responded Machanick. "Our government says it cannot be bound by foreign experiences, yet it chooses to listen to a small group in California and Australia on this issue and ignores the pleas here at home of the South African medical community."